Sub-Zero Temps Got Nuthin’ on Anberlin

Over the phone, Anberlin’s drummer, Nathan Young, doesn’t sound entirely confident that touring through the frigid plains of the upper Midwest in January was the wisest decision his band could have made.

“I put the weather in Fargo on my phone for fun to check it, and a couple days ago it was like negative ten,” Young said. “We’re up in Florida, so we’ve never been in weather like that. We don’t know how to dress, we don’t know what to do. So, we’re definitely all a little nervous, and you know, praying and hoping that we don’t all freeze to death or get sick. It’ll be fun though.”

Indeed, trekking through this area in the dead of winter takes a certain amount of both dedication and foolhardiness. Provided the atmospheric pop rock quintet are able to thaw themselves out well enough to play, however, they shouldn’t have much trouble winning over audiences with the material on their latest record, New Surrender.

Big verses and bigger choruses abound on the disc, which displays a finely polished sound that could find itself equally at home amongst small clubs and giant arenas alike.

For what is essentially a pop album (albeit one with more depth than such a tag would imply), the disc covers a wide breadth of textures and moods. Lead track, The Resistance opens up with a lone palm-muted guitar before eventually reaching its stomping chorus and driving, surprisingly aggressive bridge.

Feel Good Drag mirrors a similar vibe, whereas other tracks like Breaking and Young Life steer into more radio-friendly territory. It’s impossible to accuse the act of sticking too tightly to a predetermined formula, as each song sounds invariably distinct from the one that preceded it.

“I think we all felt very accomplished, because going into it we had almost 30 songs… working it down to what we had and just really spending time with each one and deciding whether or not it was the best it could be,” Young said.

Not only does the disc represent the band’s tightest work to date, it’s also their major label debut for Universal Republic. However, Anberlin’s jump from independent Christian rock powerhouse Tooth And Nail to a major wasn’t entirely unpredictable. The band’s immense popularity had pushed them beyond what could be accomplished on an indie, and it was only a matter of time before bigger labels came calling.

“They actually contacted us, and we had meetings with them, and kind of met them all, and just felt like that was the label we wanted to be on,” Young said. “A bunch of different labels were looking at us, and we felt they were the best, and felt the coolest.”

While horror stories about established bands making the major label leap and falling on their faces are commonplace, Young sounds cautiously optimistic that Anberlin won’t suffer such a fate.
“We definitely were nervous, because it’s a big deal going from [Tooth And Nail] to a major,” Young said. “You hear a lot of scary stories about major labels and how they’re big and bad and they control your music, they control your lives.

“So yeah, it was definitely a little bit of a nervous feeling going into it, but it’s been amazing so far, and we love that label so much.”

Despite the move to a bigger home, Young says things have been business as usual for himself and his bandmates.

“We’ve just always toured hard, and it’s just been what we’ve done,” Young said. “We’ve come out of the same work ethic as Anberlin.”